Peter R. Bickford

Two things going on here (always best to move these into separate threads), but let's try to take them on: Can you send me a screen shot of what you're seeing on the theme/text? OK to send it straight to me at pbickford@human-computing.com On next/prev--can you send me a title/titles which are doing the looping thing for you. Note: MAKE SURE you're using ComicBase 26.3.0.4600+, then do File > Rebuild Lists > Series information. If it still loops, I'd really like to know. Best, -Pete

Not seeing this behavior in the current build. Make sure you have All Titles selected, and nothing typed in the typing area. Please give us a call so we can set up a remote session to try to help you out.

If you're having trouble with your Crystal Reports illustration, try this: 1. VERY IMPORTANT: Temporarily disable any active non-Microsoft security softway which might interfere with installs. 2. Go to your Programs control panel (under Windows menu) and uninstall Crystal Reports 3. Reinstall the latest Crystal Reports installer from here: http://comicbase.com/distro2026/CRRuntime_64bit_13_0_36.msi -- after downloading it, double-click to install

When you say you're stuck on a spinning wheel, is that when you first launch the app, or when you're trying to view a report? Also, iOS or Android?

Again, double-check that you have the latest build. But if you're still having trouble, give us a call so we can help you troubleshoot. -Pete

Couple of things here: 1. Make sure you're using the latest build of ComicBase. There have been some changes of late which could trip up the smooth application of offline mode which were since fixed. 2. ComicBase will go into "offline mode" if you have no internet at all. You'll see a note at the right of the program that you're offline, and ll internet checks will be suspended. 3. I suspect the particular checks you were encountering were availability lookups/pricing for items on Atomic Avenue when you click on an item. You can disable the price graph to disable those, but it's still going to want to do checks for various things like checking for updates, saving backups, etc. --all of which require the internet. -Pete

Realistically, any mobile app is going to be hugely compromised without a solid internet connection. For the "Steel Faraday Cage scenario" (typical comic convention hall), I'd recommend saving pdfs of reports on my phone and pre-downloading them as a fallback.

We just changed up the code which generates prelim images to force it to downsize the image as needed if the aspect ratio is such that it would otherwise not be recognized as a prelim image. (Basically, we're forcing the image to be either 2158, 1023, or 725 pixels high so that we can treat any image of that EXACT height as a prelim for this purpose). In the past, images with a wider aspect ratio didn't always happen this way. We don't plan on resizing existing prelims (the normal course of things is that they get replaced by real images), but let's keep an eye open for the future. -Pete

(Build 2756 is basically just there to make sure a similarly sleep-deprived me can never hit the wrong button again and push an internal test build into the distribution chain!)

Bill: if you're still having trouble after downloading the latest build, it's likely an issue with your database. Note any error messages, and contact support on Monday at 408-266-6883 so we can set up a remote session to help you out.

On the localhost message: I mistakenly pushed out a test build. Please download 2755 from Registrations and retry.

I kind of like this as a tech gimmick (it scratches the geek side of my brain), and I might take it on as a side project at some time. That said, it's almost certainly going to be one of the slowest and most unreliable ways to look up what you're looking for. A barcode search takes a second and is bang on for all comics with one; a title search (first couple of letters of the title, a second or two to choose the title, followed by a second or two to type the issue number (or scroll) is almost certain to be several times faster and more reliable than any image-related search.

You'll still qualify for the upgrade price if you want to switch down to the Pro, so you're definitely feel free to go that route if you feel it'll serve your needs better. Notes worth mentiioning (they always seem to come up in tech support!) - Your archive version won't suddenly become a pro version--you do need to download the Pro software separately (and its subscription is different than the Pro's one--it'll run a year from the date of purchase). - The Pro version has almost all the same feature as the Archive (except no e-Commerce export, a few other esoteric things), but most notably, it won't download full-size covers (just thumbnails), and the range of publishers it'll download is far less (dozens of publishers vs. over 9,000 for the Archive Edition). If that works for you, downgrading to the Pro should work fine, but note that there are some important things in the Archive that won't be there in the Pro. Best, -Pete

As far as 1990s polybagged stuff, I think Overstreet got it right in saying that the bag <> the comic. (and frankly, if you leave it on the comic, you won't have the comic decades sooner than if you remove it). The plastic used for the wraps is decidedly acidic, and will break down the comic over time. As such, there's no "bonus' for having the still-bagged version (and likely a grade difference if you didn't remove the bag!) An important wrinkle, however, is the more recent idea of "blind bag" vs. "revealed" comics -- definitely a real thing, and it' s a simple matter of probabilities. E.g. a "blind bag" version of a series has a 1:1000 chance of being the "super-duper-ultra-rare 1:1000" copy. (same for 1:25, 1:50, or 1:anything variants)." but a "revealed" copy of any of these has a 100% chance of being that item. As such, it will trade for a wildly different value. (and you'll see the bagged version listed separately).

I don't know that there's an clear way to get a better result here than choosing the option to "only show owned + regular issues" -- unfortunately, massive numbers of variants defeat any meaningful grouping of issues (which worked great back in the days when you could say, "I have issues 1-5, 7-10" but falls apart utterly when many titles don't even have "regular" issues.